It is common for surveillance systems to be used to monitor areas. Such systems typically use a camera or a set of cameras, the outputs of which are displayed at a control room. Often one operator needs to observe many displays with multiple live camera streams. For efficient video surveillance good image quality is crucial. However, it is not always possible to provide good image quality.
It is an object of the invention to provide a surveillance system and method of controlling a surveillance system that overcomes problems associated with conventional devices.
US 2008/180553 A1 discloses a video imager used to measure the natural and/or artificial light levels in a space. These lighting estimates may be passed to a controller via a communication network. The controller may determine if and which areas of the space require more light or if and which areas of the space have more light than required. Based on the lighting estimates, the controller may issue commands to turn on/off or dim/brighten the light from various ones or combinations of light sources in or around the space via actuators.
DE 10 2014 216366 A1 discloses a system and a method for supervising an area by comparing the average brightness of an image of the supervised area as captured by a camera (e.g. a current image of the area) with a reference brightness (e.g. of a reference image of the area) and if the difference between the average brightness of the current image and the reference brightness of the reference image reaches or exceeds a threshold, then a lighting device is switched on. The system/method uses differential changes between subsequent images in a video stream to detect intrusion of objects in the supervised area and switches on the illumination when intrusion is detected.
US 2008/297611 A1 relates to desktop video sessions and discloses a video communication system including a computer program that implements a feedback control process for automatically controlling a light. The feedback control process may include receiving an image from a video camera and determining an initial difference between the received image and a stored image, e.g. related to a facial color tone map. If the difference between the captured image and the stored image exceeds a threshold, the feedback control process includes transmitting an optimization instruction to the light. This optimization instruction, when performed by the light, decreases the difference between the received image and the stored image.